A small gaggle of nervous kids approached the members ofAdmiral Twin last month on the streets of Seattle. They hadobviously screwed up a great deal of courage to approachthe Tulsa band, and they were wide-eyed with awe.

"Are you in a band?" one of the girls asked cautiously.

The Admiral Twin fellows said yes, puffing with a littleinternal pride.

The girls were particularly focused on bass player MarkCarr, his bushy locks and constantly furrowed expression.

"You're ... Eddie Vedder?" they asked him.

Oh well.

There are worse things that can happen to a rock band onthe road than being mistaken for Pearl Jam.

It's an understandable error, too. Pearl Jam was playingin Seattle the same night Tulsa's pop-rock kings AdmiralTwin once again opened for Hanson in the Emerald City.Admiral Twin is the other Tulsa band on the Albertane Tour --Hanson's oddly named summer trek across the continent — andthey might be having more fun than even the much-ballyhooedbrothers.

"We're on a national tour playing for sold-out arenas.Yeah, I guess we're having a good time," drummer JarrodGollihare said before the band's July 8 show in Tulsa.

The fun continues — as does the development of futurebusiness prospects. Numerous record label scouts have seenthe show at various stops, many specifically to check outAdmiral Twin. A rep from Mojo Records (Cherry Poppin'Daddies, etc.) was hanging out with the band in Tulsa, andscouts from Mercury — Hanson's label — were on hand for thesold-out show at the Hollywood Bowl.

The band, however, is tight-lipped about any deals goingdown. "We can just say for now that stuff is happening.We'll have some news at the end of the tour," said theband's instrumental everyman and songwriter, Brad Becker,in an interview this week from the tour's second stop inDetroit.

In the meantime, these Tulsa players — Becker, Gollihare,Carr and guitarist John Russell — are high on the excitementof this incredible opportunity. Just last spring, AdmiralTwin would have surrendered a digit or two to play beforesold-out crowds of nearly 25,000 people as they did atWashington, D.C.'s Nissan Pavilion. After their sound checkat the Mabee Center last month, they were remarking howsmall the 8,000-capacity venue was.

How quickly they forget.

Granted, these giant venues are not selling out on thestrength of Admiral Twin's presense on the ticket. That'sthe bittersweet dilemma of every opening act. But theHanson tour is a different animal for an opening band,Admiral Twin has discovered.

"For a lot of the kids in this audience, this is theirfirst rock show ever," Becker said. "They're all having agood time regardless. They're not jaded. They're open toanything they hear, and we just feed it to them."

Surprisingly, the band isn't totally anonymous to thesefirst-ever huge out-of-Tulsa crowds. Several audiences — onboth coasts — have been sprinkled with Admiral Twin bannersamidst the ocean of poster-sized declarations of devotionto Hanson. Some crowds — as the band chronicles in its tourdiary (see related story) — have even chanted Admiral Twin'sname.

That's not the only feedback they get from new fans,though, Becker said.

"We've been getting a ton of e-mail, too," said Becker,also the band's webmaster, who keeps track of the band'sweb page and e-mail daily from the road. "In the last monthor so, we've gotten 2,000 e-mails. The Internet is where alot of this started. First, some people posted on theHanson newsgroup that we were goign to be on the tour. ThenHanson linked to our web page from their official page.That got the word out to Internet-savvy Hanson people. Thenonce we started playing shows, it turned it loose. We get30 to 40 messages a day from people saying they showed upexpecting to throw food at the opening band but wound uploving us. They say, `You guys aren't anything like Hanson,but we loved you.' "

Aye, it's that disparity in sound that's the rub.Admiral Twin took on that name after seven years as theMellowdramatic Wallflowers; the change was part of theband's effort to distance itself from an undeserved butnonetheless dogging image as a kiddie band. The group'spower pop is suited ideally for whatever might remain of acollege radio audience.

So why did they turn around a month after the makeoverand accept the offer — from the Hansons themselves — to be onthis tour with demographics split above and below thatcollege radio crowd? The short answer is another question:who in their right mind would turn down an opening bid fora group fresh from earning numbers as the No. 1 act in theworld? "We're not a weird niche group. We're a pop-rockgroup. We've got a broader appeal than a punk-ska band or aweird art group. This is a portion of our target audience --the low age bracket and their parents — and it's a greatchance for us. After this tour, we hope to do somecolleges," Becker said.

Admiral Twin joined the Hanson summer tour when it cameashore June 20 for a show in Montreal. Since then, theseTulsa popsters have been opening sold-out arenas across theNorth American continent for the teeny-bop trio.

They've been keeping a tour diary all summer long. Along version, plus complete information about the band, isavailable on the band's web site(http://www.admiraltwin.com/). Here are some excerpts fromthe band's chronicle of star-struck shows, credit-cardcapers and barricade-busting:

Montreal (June 21) Wow! What a great feeling, walking onstage in front of 12,000 screaming people. It seemed likewe went over very well. Nobody threw anything hard orpointy at us. Our eardrums exploded the first time thecrowd yelled and we're all now legally deaf.

Toronto (June 24) The fun never stops on the AlbertaneTour. Last night's show at the Molson Amphitheater wascrazy. Sold-out (16,000 seats), the venue roared like anarmy of screaming cheetahs when we took the stage.Unfortunately, the crowd shrieked all through the Hansonshow as well, making misery for the sound technicians.Anyone attending further shows be warned: earplugs are aprerequisite. Last night also revealed a marked increase inpeople that either recognized us or had signs for us. Wedon't mind being underdogs, but it's gratifying to not betotally anonymous to the crowds. Fans are good.

Toronto itself is pretty crazy. Very multicultural. Thefirst day we were there, Iran beat the United States insoccer. Nothing but a tiny blip on our mental radar, butthose crazy Iranians were hootin' and hollerin' andululating up and down the streets, honking their horns,driving cars while cradling huge Iranian flags on poles outtheir windows. Back and forth. Honking. Waving flags.Ululating. More honking. Up and down. This went on prettymuch all day. Well, hey, I guess it's not every day you getto beat the Great Satan in soccer.

Boston (June 27) Tonight was the Great WoodsAmphitheater show. 19,900 people, or so we've heard. All inall a good show but it was so hot that “Dancing on theSun'' (one of our songs) took on a whole new meaning to us.The crowd looked pretty sweaty by the end of the night aswell. Brad tried to convince the Hansons to hire ahelicopter with a water cannon to come spray the audience.No luck. We hope the heat doesn't get any worse in D.C. andAtlanta but our hopes are most probably in vain. By Atlantaour stage attire will have probably downsized from ourblack wool suits to simple loin-cloths. Just kidding.

Detroit (June 30) Last night we played Pine Knob nearDetroit. The venue was sized and shaped not unlikeToronto's. Both seat 16,000 people. Tomorrow's show in D.C.should be close to 25,000. Paltry numbers.

We're trying to get out there and meet [the fans].Sometimes before the show, sometimes after. Security peopleget scared, though, and think we're starting riots. InToronto, the guard kept saying, “It's not funny! Can yougo away? These girls are ...'' He was drowned out byshrieks from a group of girls that was pressing up againstthe barricade on a bridge, wanting autographs. He wasclearly scared. How bizarre. You wake up one day andsuddenly people want to meet you and so, of course, itbecomes impossible. Life is funny like that.

D.C. (June 30-July 2) Incredible. Nissan Pavilion was byfar the best show yet. The crowd was insanely loud, full ofAdmiral Twin posters and very excited to hear us. Theystood up while we played. They jumped up and down. Theyclapped and yelled. They even chanted, “Admiral! Admiral!Admiral!'' as we were leaving the stage. Of course, after afew seconds they switched to “Hanson! Hanson! Hanson!''but that's OK, too.

Tonight we ate dinner with Ozzy Osbourne's daughtersand Zac and Taylor. Rumor has it the daughters paid anexorbitant sum for a backstage pass to the show at someauction. MTV was there to interview them and the Hansons.

Tulsa (July 8-11)It's a real trip to observe the“fringe'' behavior that those boys [Hanson] bring out inpeople. Especially the younger members of the fairer sex.Unfortunately, Tulsa is languishing in the grip of a fierceand fiery heatwave. Talk about nasty. Hot and humid are thewords of the day, and the only relief from the heat comeswith rain, which only further incites the humidity. Yuck.Also, Brad had to go back to his day job for a day or two.He calls it “work.'' The word vaguely rings a bell withthe rest of the band. It sounds like something we weretrying to forget.

The Tulsa crowd was markedly different from the othercrowds so far. For starters, it was a sit-down kind ofcrowd. Even during the Hanson's set, the crowd sat andwatched. They seemed attentive and appreciative, butperhaps slightly less fanatical. Chalk it up tofamiliarity, maybe. The Mabee Center also confiscated allthe signs and banners that they saw, and it was quite darkinside anyway, so it was hard to see if any of the crowdwas familiar with us or our music. We're wondering whatkind of response we'll get in L.A. There's supposed to bemovie stars at the show. Maybe someone needs anup-and-coming young band for their next directorialendeavor ...

Los Angeles (July 11-13) L.A. is a very interestingplace. You've got the ocean, the mountains, the highways,and just way too many people running around looking fortrouble. Luckily, they somehow missed us and we had a verynice time in the City of Angels. We've been here before, sowe knew what to expect.

The show at the Hollywood Bowl was sold out. L.A.luminaries there included Gus Van Sant, Jenny McCarthy andDavid Hasselhoff. Yup, we talked to him about “KnightRider.'' Really. Unfortunately, since there was a thirdband playing before us, we only got to play 15 minutes. Thecrowd seemed to like us, though. The next day, we touredMedia Ventures, met Hans Zimmer (a famous composer) anddrove up Pacific Coast Highway 1 to San Francisco. By thetime we finally found our hotel, it was almost 3 a.m.

Denver (July 16-18) Ah, Red Rocks! For those of youwho've never been, it's as beautiful as you'd think. We'refollowing in the footsteps of U2 and the Beatles. Not badcompany. Unfortunately, we arrived late, and it was asomewhat stressful day, all told. Some of us got lostdriving back to the hotel. Those darn roads are all darkand twisty around there.

The crowd at Red Rocks was wonderful. They were quiteattentive and receptive. They jumped up and down. They hadbanners. One difference there that we appreciated was thatmost of the general admission rows were close to the front.That meant that the front rows were packed out and excitedto be there. A few people got a little too excited and madea golden calf to worship so we smote them. Whoa. It must belate at night. Time for bed ...

Seattle (July 19-21) Next stop on the tour was Seattle,the Fertile Crescent of coffeehouses, grunge music and evilsoftware empires. We saw the Space Needle (and the fuzzySneedle mascot), rode the monorail, explored thefish-scented Pike Street Market and found the Admiral Twinmovie theater. It's just called the Admiral Theater now.Too bad for them. That evening, we dined in sumptioussplendor at a quaint little local bistro called Denny's.We're really expanding our horizons. The audience atthe Key Arena was the best yet. We were back up to ourseven song set and the crowd didn't seem to mind. After 30minutes of screaming, jumping, clapping, and even blowingkisses, we said goodnight. Some of the audience memberswere doing those things as well.

Milwaukee and Detroit (July 23-29) After Seattle, wemade a quick trek back home. It was an overnight flight, sowe left the Key Arena and took a taxi straight to theairport. John, who's nervous enough about flying,particularly enjoyed the choice of "Titannic" as thein-flight movie. Why not just show "Airport '77"?

For the first two legs of the tour, we flew from city tocity. Now we're driving. Because of the drive, we didn'tget to see much of Milwaukee, but we enjoyed what we saw.There was both a German fest and a Death Metal fest.Luckily the crowds didn't mingle. Our only previousknowledge of Milwaukee involved breweries and Laverne andShirley. We learned that Mr. Whipple was from Green Bay andthat this is the 70-year anniversary of Charmin so Mr.Whipple is going to start encouraging people to squeeze theCharmin. It's about dang time.

Now, on to Detroit. There were lots of people there whohave previously posted on our newsgroup and correspondedwith us via email. They seemed excited to see us and wealways like putting faces to names. We shook a lot of handsand signed stuff until carpal tunnel set in. After theshow, we had one of those moments that you never forget.Behind the venue there were hundreds of people lined uphoping for a glimpse of Hanson as they left. Isaac came outto the tour bus and we looked on in amazement as anavalanche of people crashed the barricades and swept pastthe the security guards. Ike ran. Then people startedlooking around and recognized us so we prudently decided tostep back inside. It's always an adventure.

These online "clips" reproduce a self-selection of my journalism (music etc) during the last 20+ years. It's a lotta stuff, but it only scratches the surface. I do not currently possess the time or resources to digitize the whole body of work. These posts are simply a bunch of pretty great days at the office.